An attempt to discuss every single product available for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game.

Saturday, 23 April 2016

The 13th Skull

DCC #71
(Goodman Games) contains two adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics,
both written by Joseph Goodman. The
13th Skull is a level 4 adventure, and The Balance Blade is
designed for level 2 characters.

The 13th Skull

This
adventure centers around the consequences of a deal made with a patron
centuries ago. The wizard Edward Magnussen made a deal with a devil (name and
powers left obscure), granting him Ducal powers and immortal life. Thirteen
generation later, the evil Duke is rising from the dead, using the remains of
his own descendants as fodder to do so.

This
adventure has everything to recommend it – cool locations, unknown monsters,
interaction with other planes of existence, a tense final showdown, and even a
pterodactyl. Importantly, it is possible for the PCs to survive, defeat the
immortal Magnussen, and still be forced to flee town when they lose. There is more than one win condition, allowing
for a lot of tension and interesting choices in play. Likewise, there is more
than one possible avenue by which the PCs can assault the adventure location.

The Appendix
N “pulp” feel of the adventure is very strong. Players must take serious risks
with their characters to succeed, or be extremely clever. A portal to Hell is
open, and this adds an extra dimension (pun intended).

I have run
this adventure with great effect. The encounters are flavourful and appropriate.
There is enough of a mystery to allow the cleverest players to feel quite
satisfied when they have resolved most of what is going on. The fights were
serious; the dangers real.

The Balance Blade

This short
adventure requires that a PC owes a patron a favour. The patron would like the
PC and his group to recover the Balance Blade, an ancient artefact that
could sway the balance of power between Law and Chaos, or among the Lords of
Chaos themselves! No great power for Law or Chaos can wield (or even reach) the
blade, so mortal assistance is vital.

The
adventure itself is rather linear short series of challenges. The challenges
themselves are largely interesting, and if the players involved remain in
character could be enormously fun. The adventure is not “fair”. It is not
intended to be. One of the themes of Dungeon Crawl Classics is that the
PCs are but pawns in a cosmic game, and the adventure showcases that. Sometimes
pawns are sacrificed.

This
adventure will require some preparation from the judge. Do not imagine that you
are going to run it smoothly without reading it carefully and doing the
recommended prep.

Because the
adventure is not “fair”, some judges may wish to run it with pregenerated
characters rather than with their players’ beloved cutthroats and reavers.
Although I have not had a chance to run this yet, when I eventually do, it will
be with regular PCs rather than pregens. I think that the impact would be far
greater that way.

On the other
hand, this is a really, really good adventure for convention play, if you are
trying to fit a four-hour slot. One has the impression that it was written for
that purpose.

The
difficulty that I have had in running it so far is that the wizards in my
groups have been rather leery of owing favours to patrons. Remembering that
spells are gained randomly, from the 26 possibilities (27 if you include “patron
spell”), there are only two chances to learn invoke patron/patron bond…a
1 in 13 chance. With 4 or more rolls, there is at least a reasonable chance
that a PC learns this spell. Added into that, I give many opportunities to gain
a patron without patron bond. Still,
I find my players rather hesitant overall.

In a way,
that’s okay. You should be hesitant.

The opening
of The
Balance Blade, though, starts with the 2nd level wizard
having been helped by his patron many times, and that simply hasn’t happened
yet at my table. If The Balance Blade is a fable about being careful what demons or
gods you strike alliances with, my players were cautious about that long before
Dungeon
Crawl Classics fell into my eager hands!

Conclusions

Both of the
adventures presented herein are solid. The primary adventure is worth the cost
of the module by itself, and is useful for almost any DCC campaign. The second
adventure is a bit harder to fit in, but when you read it, you will want to use
it. I know that I do.

Update & Disclosure

Last November, Goodman Games revealed that a new printing of this module will include "new material on magic skulls by Daniel J. Bishop". So, there's that. This is one of the free adventures all backers (print or pdf) of the 4th Printing kickstarter for Dungeon Crawl Classics will receive.

I would have included this information earlier, but I was not aware that it had been made public yet.

Disclosure

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